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Internet opens up endless business opportunities

VietNamNet Bridge – Developing websites and selling goods under the e-commerce mode prove to be a lucrative business. The internet has helped many people become billionaires.

Pennies can make up a fortune

A source said that the turnover of lamchame.com, an education forum, in 2010 reached one billion dong. After paying expenses, about several hundreds of millions of dong, the administrators (they are a couple) can get the high income which is the dream of many other people. Meanwhile, “hatmethi”, which has been operational for the last two months, can sell three tons of products a month and earn a “satisfactory profit” every month.

Registering to sell goods on a forum, and then developing their own websites was the way followed by the owner of thangbesport.com, Nguyen Xuan Hoang, Director of Hoang Gia Sports Fashion Company. Besides selling goods online, he has also opened a shop.

Hoang said that he can get 150 orders a day on peak days, mostly from HCM City, while 30 percent of the orders come from other provinces. Hoang declined to reveal the actual profits, but he said the website serves as the important financial source to keep the company’s operation.

Danong.com, which specializes in selling the products for men to help improve the sexual ability, has also become well known. “I hesitate to come directly to drug stores to purchase these kinds of products. Placing orders on danong.com proves to be the best solution for me,” a regular member of the website said.

In trading books alone, there are a series of websites for choice, including vinabook.com, minhkhai.com.vn, saharavn.com, nhasachkinhte.vn, www.tiki.vn, sachhay.com, davibooks.vn. Books are considered one of the basic products in e-commerce. The owners of the websites have learned much from the success of Amazon and well exploited the domestic market.

The success stories

In 2001, Bach Thanh Trung, then a first year university student, established Vietnam Overclockers Zone (VOZ), a computing forum. However, in 2005, Trung had to close VOZ because the website did not get any ads or sponsors, even though it could gather 300,000 members at that time.

In 2006, Trung decided to change his strategy and resumed VOZ with the monthly sponsor of three million dong from Mai Hoang Company. To date, the income from VOZ has become big enough to operate and expand. According to Trung, many investors have asked for cooperation or purchased the website, but the sums of money they offer are not big enough.

In 2004, thegioididong.com.vn (mobile phone world) was just known as a website to introduce mobile phone products. However, the sales from the websites have been increasing rapidly since 2009. Now the website can bring the turnover of 30 billion dong a month, or 10 percent of the total turnover of the retail chain.

Zing.vn of Vinagame (VNG) has attracted about 5 million members. VNG’s Deputy General Director, Hoang Tuan Anh said that the turnover of Zing.vn is still modest, because it is now the time to invest and attract people. The “modest turnover” means tens of billions dong a year.

Market still large enough

“One will be able to live well if he has reasonable way of doing business, targets specific clients, follows strange and attractive marketing strategies,” said Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Southern Chief Representative of VECOM, the e-commerce association.

Nguyen Huu Hanh, former Chief Representative of Yahoo in Vietnam also said that the market is still big enough for websites to develop. The key issue is how to build up and run the websites.

Le Khac Dinh from Yahoo Vietnam noted–that it is more easily to earn money if running forums thanks to the lower investments and the higher interaction levels than websites. He said that one should not make investments in developing news websites, but should think of developing service websites.